Sunday Afternoon Bread Baking

This morning all I wanted was fresh bread. Like the kind you get at your local family owned bakery... but I didn't want to spend $10. So I took to Pinterest to find the 'perfect' recipe. Unfortunately, it's a lot harder to find such a recipe. Many recipes are super easy, no-kneed, using 3-4 ingredients but required 12-14 hours to rise. Although I had 12-14 hours, my stomach and taste buds were only willing to wait 3 hours at most.

I finally found a recipe that was faster, but made 2 loaves... and I, being one person, only needed one loaf. So I made some amendments, tested it, and, if I may say so myself, turned out wonderfully!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups of warm water
1 packet of fast acting yeast
3 1/2 cups of flour
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
1 teaspoon of sugar

Add the yeast to the water... let sit for a few minutes. 

Do NOT use HOT water, or you will kill the yeast.

Mix the flour, salt and sugar together

Add the yeast and water, mix slowly and carefully, folding as you go.

Try hard not to over mix, or the bread will end up tough.

After about 10-15 turns, it should look like this.

Cover for 2 hours. I like to take a towel, wet it, microwave it for 30 seconds and place it on top of the mixing bowl. It provides the bread with a warm place to rise.

This is after 1 hour of rising. 1 more hour to go!

Flour a surface (I used a baking sheet) and lightly flour your hands to keep the dough from sticking to them. After the dough has sat for 2 hours, pull it out of the mixing bowl, form it into a round (No Kneeding!), cut a few lines into it and pre-heat the oven to 450˙.

Put the pot in the oven while you pre-heat it. This will help give the bread a crunchy crust and bake faster. When the oven is ready, take the pot out (careful, it's HOT!), lightly grease it with Pam, sprinkle a little flour into it, then place the dough into the pot. It's okay if it loses shape or the lines cut into it. Put the lid and bake it!

Bake for 30-35 minutes (I suggest 35 minutes). When it's done, remove the lid and let it sit for a few minutes.

Pull it out of the pot and let it continue to cool on a cooling rack.

The bottom of the bread

Enjoy with olive oil, butter, or just plain!

Feel free to share... Photos are original, please give credit to Jeanne Marie, ApronStringstoDiamondRings
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Mac 'N Cheese, Please!

To all my readers, I have been absent from my writing for over a month, and to apologize I have one of the simplest, yummiest, All-American foods for you! Today, being Memorial Day, many of us gather together to celebrate and remember the men and women who risked their lives for The United States of America. We celebrate the holiday with parades dedicated to our troops, moments of silence, The National Anthem and then many of us come together for an All-American feast of hot dogs and hamburgers smothered in Heinz Ketchup, pasta and fruit salads, apple pies, and so much more.

Almost every year, at any U.S. holiday, whether it be Memorial Day, Fourth of July, or Labor Day, someone always brings Mac 'N Cheese. A childhood favorite for most, it has become a posh and high end side dish at many famous restaurants, especially when made with gourmet cheeses. Restaurants in New York City such as Blue Smoke ($8), DuMont ($15), and in Chicago, Rockit Bar and Grill ($15), Wilde ($14), just to name a few, have top-rated Mac 'N Cheese! So here's a simple, basic recipe to get you started on creating your own 5 Star Mac 'N Cheese.

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Mashed Roasted Garlic Cauliflower

Mashed Cauliflower is a great substitute for mashed potatoes. It has a similar flavor, if you can believe that, and texture! Fewer calories, by about half! The only difference is that the cauliflower has more liquid than a potato, but they're still fairly good. I've read a few recipes that steam the cauliflower then smash them with a bit of milk, but I wanted to give it a bit more flavor so I roasted the cauliflower with garlic and olive oil, then mashed them in a MagicBullet with some low fat butter milk and a dash of salt.

1/2 head of cauliflower, or about 2 cups
dash of EVOO (olive oil)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/8 cup buttermilk
pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 400˙. Mix the cauliflower with olive oil and garlic, put into a casserole dish and roast for about 30 minutes, turning them once or twice so they brown evenly. Then using a food processor or MagicBullet, mash the potatoes with a pinch of salt and about 1/8 c of low fat buttermilk or 1% milk. If you want them smoother, add more milk until it's at the consistency you'd like. Serve immediately! Happy Cooking, and Enjoy!

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Poached Egg Salad with Avocado, Cucumber Sauce

I saw a picture of an Avocado Eggs Benedict this morning on Pinterest, and since I'm not the biggest fan of Hollandaise sauce, I decided to create my own Avocado, Cucumber Sauce to have with a poached egg salad. It's very simple and can be used with an assortment of dishes. Can't make poached eggs, try it on scrambled!

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Grilled Avocado, Cheese, and Tomato

I love grilled cheese. It is so simple, yet so good. However, it is not always the healthiest choice for a Saturday lunch. With an avocado on hand, getting a bit too ripe, and a tomato almost past its 'good' stage, I decided to kick up the grilled cheese sandwich. I have posted my grilled cheese recipe, along with it's nutritional information (from CalorieCount). Don't be fooled by the extremely high numbers. Some of those are very good, like the fiber. And the fat from the avocado is much better for you than fat from butter or whole fat cheese. So don't be alarmed. Then, to give you a good comparison, I also have the nutritional facts for a simple white-bread-american-cheese-cooked-with-butter grilled cheese. You'll be amazed!

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